Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Alicia Kearns Excerpts
Monday 5th September 2022

(2 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Tom Pursglove Portrait Tom Pursglove
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The bottom line—I know the hon. Gentleman does not like it very much—is that we have recruited over 13,500 new police officers as part of the uplift, and the fact is that his party has not been supportive of those efforts. We are putting more police officers out on the beat, catching criminals and deterring crime.

Alicia Kearns Portrait Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Melton) (Con)
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We are seeing the sinister rise of the vegan militia, which is seeking to hold to ransom families and farmers across the country. When the Public Order Bill comes forward, does my hon. Friend agree that we should legislate for farming sites, abattoirs and food production sites to be sites of national infrastructure?

Tom Pursglove Portrait Tom Pursglove
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I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this, and I know that she has been engaging proactively in her constituency of Rutland and Melton. I can say that the local police forces have been working with the sites affected to mitigate the risks of these protests, and we will of course keep under review the measures we introduce as part of the Public Order Bill, which is an important step change that we are going to bring forward.